Friday, April 27, 2007

First Responders

One of the most tragic things that has happened since 9/11 is the number of First Responders
suffering from respiratory illness.
Today on the View we met a couple of them.
One suffering from respiratory fibrosis in both lungs.
He is unable to lay in his bed at night and sits in a chair straight up to sleep.
He needs a complete lung transplant.
There are 25,000 First responders suffering with lung ailments.
Soon the Federal program to help these brave men and woman will end.
They will be on their own, some of them not covered by insurance any more.
These are more of the tragedies from that awful day.
Rosie and the ladies talked about having a benefit for these victims of 9/11
I hope they follow through with it.

George "the King" does not hear those voices he is too involved in making sure all of his rich friends get their tax breaks.
Along with this, we have thousands of Veterans coming home with injuries and many from the first Iraq war still suffering from mysterious ailments and being ignored by this administration.

How many of these brave heroes will be standing in lines at food shelves in the near future?
I sent a letter to my Senators and Congressman, telling them to do something and if it means raising my taxes, so be it..


Wednesday, April 25, 2007

My Friend Rosie

I got hooked on Rosie O'Donnell when she first appeared on Star Search.
So when she started her own talk show I was in heaven.
I loved her talk show, kind of a cross between Mike Douglas and Phil Donohue.
I was sad when she chose to step down, but then I kept up with her through her blog .
She made my day when she accepted Barbara Walters offer to go on The View.
I wasn't much of a fan of that show, kinda sick of everyone pampering Star Jones.
Stars over the top wedding turned me off and I did not watch again until Rosie showed up.
Turning on Rosie in the Morning and the hot topics made my day.
I loved her honesty, her caring for others, many times I wanted to reach in and hug her when she seemed down.
I'm sure with her announcement that she has decided to leave, the "Dump Truck" will be in his glory.
Along with everyone on Fox news and some the other tabloid news stations.

Well I'm not and I am one angry woman.

I don't think ABC forced her out, unless they tried to muzzle her and Rosie is not going to be muzzled.
They knew when they hired her she was ouitspoken and had strong opinions.

When The View topples in the ratings they will realize what they are missing.

Trump, Hannity, Scarbouro can be gleeful but they can't silence Rosie.

Her blog will continue and I will check her every day so I can catch any shows she is on.

Rosie , Stranger friend, you will be missed.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

What will tomorrow bring?

Today I went to the funeral of a dear friend.
After knee replacement surgery about 5 years ago she developed a strep B infection of the blood.
It took several months for her to recover, anyway at the time she thought she was recovering.
But as time went by she had one medical thing after another, until she reached a point where they finally amputated her leg.
She fought long and hard right up to the end.
We had been friends for over 30 years and had a lot of good memories of all the
political campaigns and conventions we went too.
She was an activist, big time. Always fighting for the underdog.
We were almost reaching the point where she was going to charge up her electric chair so we could march for Peace.
She was not a fan of our current administration and she made sure every one knew that.
She was so looking forward to the 2008 elections and had commented to me.
"How neat it was that the Democrats finally have a slate of candidates where anyone of them would be great."
We couldn't decide whether we wanted the first female or the first black President and then we would commiserate how nice it would be to have someone intelligent and easy on the eyes as John Edwards.
I am lucky to have had many friends and this is not the first one I have lost.
My best friend Arli, my soul mate died 8 years ago and Mare was the first one to call me and come over.
The strangest thing about all of this, both of them died as a result of a strep infection of the blood.
Arli within 7 days, it just took Mare longer.

One thing I will always remember about both of them was their unselfish caring of others,
anyone is lucky to have one friend like that..
I have been blessed with two.

Wednesday before Easter was the last time I saw Mare.
The twinkle wasn't in her eyes, and she seemed to be just going through the motions.
She mentioned to me and another friend that was there, that she wasn't feeling good.
She spent Easter with her family and a few days later she was in the hospital.
Last Saturday, her heart stopped, what else was going on in her body?
I don't know.
I do know, that she will be missed by me and everyone out there that needed a good advocate.

Rest in Peace Mare..

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Gun's don't kill people??

Yesterday a parents worst nightmare took place.

At approximately 7:15 AM ET, a young 23 year old college student shot and killed
2 other students.
Two hours later he methodically killed 30 more, before taking his own life.

After hearing all of the stories about the young student who was the shooter, it has become obvious to me,that he was suffering from some kind of psychosis.
Even his roommate has said he acted strangely.
Teachers noticed this complexity and
one of them who worked with him one on one suggested he get counseling.
What is wrong with this picture?
Did they follow up, or contact family to discuss his strange behavior?
On a campus this large especially, they need someone who can recognize mental illness.
Or it will be happening again soon.
With the large number of military coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, who will be enrolling in college's all around this country, they better come up with some kind of plan to identify, psychosis, panic disorders, anxiety and other forms of mental Illness.
Why?
Because the gun lobby with all of their money will never allow any decent form of Gun Control to take place in this country.
No one wants to take away some ones right to hunt, but no one will ever convince me that any one other then a Police Officer needs an automatic weapon.
If this sick young person would have had to stop and reload his gun, just maybe some of those lives would have been saved.

Below is a link to a time line of recent Worldwide school shootings, read it and weep!

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0777958.html

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Hubba's update

Spent most of yesterday at the hospital, hubby had his inflamed gall bladder out.

Laparoscopy surgery is Out Patient, so did not get home until 8:30PM.

Todays Insurance companies determine our health care in this country.
There is no reason anyone should be sent home the same day they have been pumped full of anesthetics.
It is time for some strong reforms in health care.
If it is Universal or just State issued, something has to be done soon.
Instead of giving constant tax breaks to the wealthy we need to take care of those that can't take care of them selves.
A recent article in our local paper talked about hospitals having deep financial problems because of the numbers of uninsured coming into their ER rooms.
Minnesota has estimated almost 400,000 are uninsured here, many of them children
At one point the hospitals were charging those uninsured more for their treatments then they were the insured.
Sending bill collectors after them and draining every penny out of them they could.

Our former Attorney General Mike Hatch along with our current one Lori Swanson, put a stop to it.

We are the lucky ones with good coverage. But as I sat in that waiting room yesterday, I wondered what would have happened to us if we hadn't had decent coverage
How many people end up dying because they don't go in for preventative medicine.

Until we get a President that cares more for people instead of his rich friends I don't expect many changes.

Monday, April 09, 2007

The Golden Years

Have not had a good week.

Last week my hubba ended up in the hospital with severe pain in his abdomen.
It turned out to be a gall bladder attack, but in the process of diagnosing, the ER doctor found he had been on a wrong prescription for 6 weeks.
The pharmacy made a mistake,( guessing at bad hand writing is no excuse) not a small one, a dangerous one, he was taking a blood thinner instead of the medication prescribed..it was probably the cause of the attack, without going into
details, take my word for it.
He is now on the right medication plus a anti biotic for an infection caused because he was not getting the right medication.
Tonight he had a problem maybe caused by the anti biotic..so he is off of that till he talks to Doctor in the AM.

He is scheduled for gall bladder removal on Wed. ..maybe..!!
My kids think we should be suing, I don't have the stomach for it and anyway it would just make the lawyers rich.

Meanwhile the claims adjuster for the pharmacy called and will be sending out papers for him to fill out.
After tonight.. I wish I had a family member that was a lawyer...!